Black radishes

Over lunch in the park, Mieko and Reiko disagree about colors of vegetables.

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Mieko: Doesn’t look right. It’s not normal.

Reiko: What’s normal for a radish?

Mieko: White. Should be white.

Reiko: Black’s the new fashion.

Mieko: Vegetables don’t have fashions.

Reiko: Why shouldn’t they? Vegetables are just as entitled to change their appearance as we are.

Mieko: I grew up eating white radishes, I won’t eat a black radish.

Reiko: Could this be racism?

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Voiceover

There are twin streaks of experimentalism and traditionalism in Japanese culture. Reiko seems to represent the “experimenter”, perhaps a person who is not afraid to “think outside the box” or question conventional wisdom. Mieko is maybe a traditionalist. Reiko extends the discussion on vegetables to gently tease Mieko about her views on race and ethnicity.

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